The Woes of Madame Pomefry
by GottaLoveUglies
Summary: As Madame Pomefry retires from her job as the mediwitch post at Hogwarts, she looks back at the good times and bad that she had when she was there.  One-Shot.


Disclaimer: If I owned Harry Potter, would I really be writing fanfics?

The Woes of Madame Pomfrey

It was a stormy day. Madame Pomfrey looked at her office. It was small, and cramped, but just a few days prior, it was her home. She remembered all the times someone had burst into it, complaining about things from a common cold, those pesky Weasley Twins, to the various work of duels with the Slytherins. With a sad look, she stepped out the doorway. Madame Pomfrey took one last look at the rows of beds in the hospital wing, and sighed.

There she could see the plaque she had put over the bed where Harry Potter had spent most of his time. In his first year, he had a case of magical exhaustion, something extremely unheard of in a eleven year old boy. In his second year, he battled a baselik, and came out of it alive. The most amazing part of it was that he came out unscathed, with the sorting hat and the headmaster's phoenix on his arm. In his third year, he was affected by the dementors. She had not really been surprised when he had collapsed on the train. The boy had many unhappy memories. In one quidditch match, Harry had fallen off his broom from a height of about 300 feet, just barely saved by Dumbledore's wits. And around the end of that year, the boy had fought a hundred dementors with his patronus, and managed to come out with his soul intact. That was around the time what he did stopped surprising her. Then came any healer's nightmare: The Triwizard Tournament. In the first task, the students had to face a dragon and get it's egg. A nesting dragon, for crying out loud! Of everything Potter ended up in her care for, this was her least favorite. The boy had a large gash in his arm from a spike on the dragon's tail. A hungarian horntail's tail. Poppy Pomefry had complained to Dumbledore a million times about letting the fourteen year old boy compete. But him and his magically binding contract was getting hard to listen to after the twenty-ninth time. And the disasterous third task-It was a bit more than a boy could take.

A year later, he was back with his unquestionably bad luck. Gratefully, he never ended up in her care again, the only year at Hogwarts where he had never showed up. She had her about his escapade in the Department of Mysteries, however. Things about him still didn't surprise her, but this one was a full-out shocker. The next year, he had ended up in the hospital wing only once, for a broken skull to a bludger being hit into his head by his own keeper. She had not seen him again, until he came to see Bill Weasley.

She had developed a soft spot for him. She had to say he was her favorite patient.

She could see the memories of the various results of the Weasley twins' pranks. She remembered all of what had happened here, and all those times she had drawn blood from her lip from biting back a laugh. The time when all the Slytherins sprouted bright orange tentacles. The time when Montauge got turned into a pink sockpuppet. The time when the entire student population turned into various wild animals.

She also remembered Cedric Diggory's body, covered in a sheet. She had bustled about at the time, trying to keep her mind off the boy by spending all her attention on Harry Potter and his encounter. After 20 minutes of failing to hold back tears, she ran into her office and sobbed. Poppy never knew the boy, or seen him but once for that matter, but it was still hard to lose a student so well liked by the others. It was hard to lose a student, period! She had fallen asleep, curled up in a little ball, somber and tipsy when morning found her. Dumbledore had woken her up that morning. She was hardly sober, and she had cried into his arms.

And then, there was the matter of Dumbledore. She had a bit of a crush on him, but nothing much more. It really hurt her when he died though. He was the most powerful wizard in the world, and then a second later, he was nothing more than a shell of the man she once knew. She had believed Harry when he said that Snape killed Dumbledore. When he came back to be headmaster the next year, she was livid. After what he had done to her friend...It was hard resisting the impulse to strangle him every time a word came out of his mouth. But somehow, she did, and she was proud of herself for that. When Harry announced that Professor Snape was not a foe, but a friend, she was fairly shocked. She had not believed him at first. How could a man that killed people, people that you knew, people that were your friends be on your side? He had fled in the battle of Hogwarts, an act so very cowardly. Later she understood. She had tried to treat Dumbledore of his curse, with no avail. It was Snape that had come to the rescue. He had given Albus the potion. The curse made you die a very slow and painful death. On the night where Dumbledore was killed, she realized Severus was doing him a favor by putting an old man out of his misery. That still didn't make it right in her book, though. She had distracted herself by treating Bill Weasley. She had to run to her room as well that night, putting up a silencing charm and then screaming, kicking, and sobbing. She had no one to hold her now. She had felt so empty that night. When she fell, there was no one to catch her anymore.

"Ms. Pomfrey?" Her thoughts were interupted by Minerva McGonagall. Poppy quickly wiped away her tears.

"Yes Minerva?"

"It's time to go now." She stated simply.

"Alright." The headmistress walked out of the hall, with Madam Pomefry slowly following. She passed through the halls she would miss, as it was doubtful she would ever walk them again. They passed the fat lady's portrait who, upon seeing Poppy, burst into tears. Every suit of armor jumped up, and gave her a salute. She gave a watery smile. The portraits they passed all smiled and waved, some of them with tears, and some of them without. Finally, they stood outside the entrance hall. Madame Pomefry said goodbye to the Forbidden Forest that she had made complaint after complaint for. Next thing she knew, she was outside the gate.

"Take care of yourself." Then, Minerva did the most surprising thing. She hugged her. Poppy was momentarily shocked. Minerva McGonagall never gave hugs. Ever. The professor released her, and with a small watery smile, said, "I'll miss you."

"I'll miss you too." Poppy Pomefry said, as she stepped outside the gate, and into the night.

**A/N**: This was just a little drabble I had in my head at the moment. Hope you enjoyed it!

Angora


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